


Center Stage Left

by mikeythemage



Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: AS WELL AS A MARKER FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SKIP THAT SECTION, Alternate Universe - High School, Biromantic Asexual Heather, Bisexual Cody Anderson, Bisexual Trent, Boys Being Boys, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, CHAPTERS CONTAINING SAID SUBJECTS WILL BE MARKED ACCORDINGLY, Cody Anderson Has ADHD, Coming Out, Coming of Age, Duncan Bashing, F/F, Falling In Love, High School Theater, High School Typical Homophobia, Homophobic Language, I cannot stress this enough, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Neglect, Lesbian Gwen, Love Confessions, M/M, Multi, Non-Binary Izzy, Other, Pansexual Courtney, Poetry, Polyamory, Read at Your Own Risk, Recreational Drug Use, Slurs, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, THE SUBJECTS OF ABUSE AND HOMOPHOBIA ARE MENTIONED FREQUENTLY, THEY ARE EXTREMELY PLOT RELEVANT, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, drama club, okay thats all mwah ily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:09:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28805616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikeythemage/pseuds/mikeythemage
Summary: "𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐀 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐁"Senior year is supposed to be fun, according to Charlie, but Cody can't see how. Between his English project, the Fall Musical, his family issues, and his social life, things just aren't looking great. Maybe it'll be better than he expects. But then again, maybe not.
Relationships: Cody Anderson & Gwen, Cody Anderson & Noah, Cody Anderson & Noah & Gwen & Courtney & Heather & Justin & Trent & Izzy, Cody Anderson/Noah, Courtney/Heather/Gwen, Duncan & Original Characters, Izzy/Owen (Total Drama), Justin & Trent & Izzy & Owen, Justin/Trent (Total Drama)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	Center Stage Left

**Author's Note:**

> **USE OF HOMOPHOBIC SLURS IN THIS CHAPTER** !! It is marked with **_###_** , feel free to skip if you need to.

_To whomever it may concern,_

_We're officially two months into Senior year and nothings changed. Charlie said that things would change. Then again, I should know better than to listen to Charlie by now. He is a pathological liar after all. Or maybe he lied about that, too._

_  
your closest friend,_

_Cody A._

****

****

****

"Musical theater is so gay, dude." someone at the table behind Cody says. He takes in a deep sigh and rolls his eyes, pushing his lunch around his tray with the provided plastic spork. It's not the first time he's heard it in his high school career, hell it's not the first time he's heard it this _week_ and it's only Tuesday, but it's still as annoying as it was the first time. If this were a year ago, Cody probably would have turned around and debated the topic with whatever douche bag had just said that, but it isn't a year ago and Cody is honestly just trying to get through this year in one piece.

He isn't even entirely sure why he chose Drama as his end of the day elective instead of the dozens of others he could have. Maybe it's because the guidance counselor had described it as a sort of family experience, and experience Cody had been (and still does, but he won't tell you that) yearning for. Maybe it was because he thought it would be an easy A for the year. Maybe it was because he had overheard his at-the-time crush say she was considering taking the class. Maybe it was because he really was interested in musical theater. Like I said, he isn't sure, but he doesn't regret it.

Gwen, his Freshman-Sophomore year crush, did end up taking the class. Cody had done whatever he could for the first semester to try and get her to talk to him, only to be met with scowls and one word answers, sometimes even her just walking away without a word, before he got the hint. He stopped taking every excuse to talk to her. He stopped looking for her in crowds. He stopped 'accidentally' running into her on her way to class. He let their conversations happen naturally, and she even initiated some of them. Eventually she stopped thinking of him as 'creepy stalker-guy from my Drama class' and more as 'guy from my Drama class' until he was just 'Cody'. Somewhere during the second month of Sophomore year, Cody got over her and they became incredibly close. They're practically best friends, which is something that Cody has never had before so he's really grateful for it.

Speak of the devil and she shall appear, Gwen comes into the cafeteria marching towards him with a pissed off look on her face. Her black Jan-Sport bag is hanging off her right shoulder and she's gripping the strap so hard Cody's almost worried it's going to snap. He heavy black boots make a 'thump' sound with every foot fall, and if you didn't know any better you would think she was mad at Cody. Cody knows better, though. Gwen never talks to the people she's mad at face to face. He knows from personal experience. That was a weird week.

She practically falls into her chair, slipping her backpack off her shoulder with a loud huff. Cody slides her her his chocolate milk before giving her an amused smile. "What happened now?" he asks. Gwen's always in either one of two moods during lunch. Giddy to the point that you'd be convinced she got away with a crime, and pissed enough to make you think she had made a bet with the devil and lost.

She doesn't even look up, too focused on attempting to open her milk, when she replies, "Duncan-fucking-Tarun is what happened."

Cody face immediately morphs into a disgusted look. Duncan Tarun, or 'Little Dick Duncan' as they had taken to calling him (long story, don't ask), had been a thorn it both of their sides since the sixth grade. Cody, because Duncan would make fun of him relentlessly without fail, and Gwen because he had started a rumor she slept with him for five dollars. Needless to say, he's been on both of their shit lists ever since.

"What'd he do this time?" Cody asks, taking a sip of his water.

Gwen lets out a harsh, humorless laugh, before leaning under the table and digging around her bag looking for something, mumbling to herself something about 'mohawked fuck heads' as she does so. She finally slides over a book, her idea book specifically, to Cody and he raises a brow. She's never shown it to him before, and he's never asked because he figured it was a private thing. She motions for him to open it, and when he does he understands why she's so pissed.

Every single page is covered in an absolutely absurd amount of multi-colored paints. There's at most three words that are still readable in the entire book, and there's even a few pages that have been torn out and forcefully shoved back in with insults written on them in sharpie. What had once likely been a very organized, very structured book of Gwen's ideas for whatever it is she has ideas for, now looks like some asshole threw it to a pack of high art students and said 'Go wild'. Cody feels a lot more pissed than most people would over his best friends idea book being defiled. "Why the fuck would he even do this?"

Gwen gives up on trying to open the milk normally, instead opting for just tearing the top open entirely, and shrugs, "Because he's an asshole who only gets off from his weird kink of making everyone in a four-hundred-thousand mile radius of him absolutely miserable." Cody's about to respond when a commotion at the other end of the cafeteria captures his attention.

Some kid from his science class, Hayden if he remembers correctly, is currently yelling at Noah Sterecra from the student council about how the essay Noah wrote for him on the importance of environmentally friendly resources being used more often got him an F. Noah has his chin resting in the palm of his hand, a smug smirk that would probably be infuriating to be at the receiving end of, and Hayden looks red with how intensely he's yelling at the dark haired boy. Courtney Setella, the student council president, is trying her hardest to conceal her laughter behind her copy of ' _THE HATE U GIVE_ ', and Heather Kasuga, the football teams (unofficial) manager, doesn't seem phased at all as she scrolls through her phone with a bored expression on her face. There are some people recording the incident, probably hoping it'll evolve into a fight, and Cody almost turns away from the argument out of disinterest until he hears it.

**_###_ **

"Do you honestly think I'm just gonna let you get away with this, you stupid fucking fairy!"

After a gasp reverberates through the room, the entire cafeteria is quiet. In any other situation, Cody would have appreciated the silence a lot more but he's too busy trying to process what just happened. Noah's smug look has fallen from his face, replaced instead by a look almost like he was slapped, Courtney is no longer laughing, and Heather has finally looked up from her phone. She has an absolutely murderous look on her face. Cody makes a mental note to never get on her bad side.

If Hayden wasn't facing away from him right now, Cody is sure that he'd see a smirk on the taller boys face. Noah's face switches from pained shocked to cool self confidence in a matter of seconds, and just shakes his head. "There's no need to project, Jones." he says. Cody hears Duncan laugh from the other side of the cafeteria, because of course that asshole would laugh in a situation like this, and Hayden seems to be shaking in rage at the comment.

"I'm not a fucking faggot! You are!" His voice is cracking from how loud he's yelling, and if he weren't saying what he was saying, Cody would almost be worried about how his throat will feel after this.

Noah holds up his hands in surrender, nodding slowly, "I'm sure I am, Jones. Is there anything else that I am?" he raises an eyebrow, letting his hands fall down to the table and letting his smug smirk form again, "A bottom, maybe?"

Hayden loses his absolute shit at the implications of it.

**_###_ **

To make a long story _extremely_ short, by the time lunch is over there's a cop car outside (Cody and Gwen both flip it off as it drives away), a lunch table stained with the blood that came out of Noah's nose when Hayden slammed his head into it, a Noah with a broken nose and three days off school, a district wide announcement shared over the P.A systems, a Hayden in a holding cell, and a viral video going around. Cody wouldn't be surprised if the video ended up on the news, honestly.

When he walks into the theater, throwing a quick 'hi' to the Drama teacher Mr. McLean, he stops dead in his tracks when he sees who's standing on the stage. He can vaguely make out Gwen in the corner of his eyes, in the same position he is, but he's too busy staring at Little Dick Duncan to even bother saying hello. He doesn't even notice Gwen walk up to him until she speaks.

"Pinch me." she says, tugging on Cody's shirt. The brunette breaks out his trance to give her a slightly concerned look.

"What? Why?" he asks.

"Because there's no way that this day isn't a nightmare that I just need to wake up from."

"'Fraid not, Guinevere!" Chris says, walking down the isle between the seats with a clip board in hand. He takes a pen from behind his ear and checks something off of his list. "Mr. Tarun here got one too many tardies in History class, so they're making him take another class to make up the credits."

"Okay," Izzy says, raising their hand for where they're sat next to their boyfriend Owen and their friends Justin and Trent, "then why do _we_ have to be the ones to deal with him?"

Duncan scoffs, flipping them off. "I just signed up for this class cause it's an easy way to get credits. Don't fucking flatter yourselves."

Gwen and Cody exchange glances with knowing smiles, because if there's anything you learn about Drama the hard way, it's that you actually have to put in a good amount of effort to pass. Duncan is notorious for never putting in effort to pass his classes, and it shows.

Chris chuckles, when Trent flips the green haired boy off right back, "Settle down, boys. We don't want bad blood before he even gets to show off his acting prowess."

"We already have bad blood." the fifteen or so people in the room say in unison. The drama program isn't big, really, but people never pass up their chance to get a lead roll when the semester plays roll around. High school is full of validation craving teenagers, after all.

Chris shakes his head, "Then lets try and remedy that, dudes!" he says with his Californian accent. It's weird that he even has one, considering he said he grew up in Wyoming (yes, everyone in the class made jokes about how he didn't actually exist), but Cody's learned not to question him at this point. "Alright, Mr. Tarun, off the stage! I've gotten take attendance." Duncan jumps off the stage with an eye roll before sitting down as far away from everyone as he possibly can while Chris starts reading off attendance.

"Georgie, are you floating too?" Chris says the phrase like it isn't a totally absurd thing to say It was something that Chris did for every new student of the class. He would read your name, and give you a nickname he would say instead of your actual name during attendance. Cody and Gwen's have been the same since Freshman year, as well as the handful of kids that are still there

"I most certainly am, my clownish friend."

"Lancelot of the Round Table?"

"Sup, dude."

"Guinevere from Camelot?"

"You literally talked to me like five minutes ago."

"Sorry, did you say 'not here'?" Chris asks, putting a hand behind his ear like he couldn't hear her.

There's a sigh, "Yeah, I'm here."

"That's what I thought. Kitty Katey Meow Meow?"

"Present."

"Slowin Owen?"

"Accounted for."

"Ya boi Batofel?"

"I'm just kinda chilling, bro."

"Hell yeah, bro. Trenton BoBenton?"

"Chris Mcleaney MoBeaney."

"Ah! High Wizard Izzwardathan!"

"You called, my liege!"

"The Codmeister? Are you here to bless us with your sick tunes?"

"You know it, dawg! Bap buh boop yuh!"

"Bap buh boop yuh, indeed, my funky fresh friend. Duncan?" There's silence for a few seconds. "Duncan?"

When there's still no response, Chris looks up and everyone turns around in their seats to look at the teen in question. He's sitting on his phone with headphones in, no doubt with his music on full blast, playing some kind of game. Someone throws a shoe at his head, most likely Izzy judging by the random assortment of eye bleeding neon colors, and he looks up with a pissed off face as everyone laughs. "What the fuck?" he yells.

"I'm taking attendance." Chris says, looking back down at his clip board, "Duncan, are you here?"

"You already fucking know I'm here." Duncan says.

"Are you here?" Chris says, sterner this time. There's a beat of silence as Duncan looks at all of the people that are staring at him. He shifts in his seat a bit before sighing.

"Yeah. I'm here, or whatever." he says, crossing his arms.

Chris smiles, "Well, that's good to know." he checks Duncan as present on the list, handing it to Hannah, his T.A, "Put your phone away, Mr. Tarun." he says, giving Duncan a cold stare. Duncan rolls his eyes, but puts the phone in his bag with an exaggerated huff. Gwen holds her hand out to Izzy in the row his front of them, which the Red-head gladly accepts, and they both snap their fingers as they take their hands back.

"Nice aim throwing your shoe at Little Dick Duncan's head, Iz."

They just shrug with a small smile, "You know me. Doing the lords work and all."

Gwen playfully rolls her eyes as Chris starts talking again, "Alright then, campers! It's Tuesday, you know what that means." Everyone groans, while Duncan just looks around confused, "Yup! It's monologue day! Trent, you're up first and Duncan you can sit out on this one since you just joined the class." Chris walks off stage as Trent makes his way onto it, adjusting his hoodie as he does so. The class gives him a few shouts of encouragements (Justin says 'with an ass that fat, there's no way to fail' to which Trent just flips him off and everyone else breaks into laughter), as he walks on stage.

Monologue days are always especially boring. Not because any one is particularly bad at their monologues, but because it's the same routine over and over again. You don't have to get emotional enough to cry, you just have to sound like you're going to and you'll get a passing grade. It's criminally easy so long as you didn't fuck off until the last minute to memorize it.

Which may or may not have been what Cody did.

In his defense, he had a busy week! There was a lot of new content added to his favorite game because of the recent update, and who is he to deprive himself of the joy the creators worked so hard to be able to give him? It would be disrespectful, honestly. Spitting on the grave of the game developers without remorse! Cody couldn't do that! It was against his moral code to do so!

He pulls his monologue out of his bag, not paying attention at all as he scans the paper trying to memorize is in the fifteen minutes he has to do so. Gwen even lets him switch spots with her so that he can get a little extra time. He'll have to pay her back with an extra milk tomorrow.

__

__

__

Noah Sterecra, ever the studious man, comes back to school the very next day despite the three days off he was given acting as if nothing happened and Cody, for the first time in his entire life, finds himself listening to the whispers in the halls. He doesn't actively partake in talking about it, knowing that some people just prefer to let things die, but it's hard not to listen. Cody's least favorite rumor is that his parents weren't allowing him to stay home because it reminded Cody of his own parents. (His second to least favorite is the rumor that Hayden got off easy and only has to spend about two months in juvie.)

He doesn't really mean to, but he ends up staring at Noah during his AP US History class. It's not like he has to pay attention, the basic gist is that the entirety of America fucking sucked and still does, but he still feels a little weird when he realizes. He's not exactly mad about it, again you don't really have to pay attention in this class, but it makes him feel a little itchy on the inside.

The cafeteria is loud, as usual, but he's zeroed in on Noah like he was in history. His nose is still swollen, covered by a band-aid, and if you look close enough you can make out a small bruise forming on the side of his cheek from where Hayden punched him. Courtney is sipping her water as Noah exasperatedly explains something to her. Heather is scrolling through her phone, only glancing up every once in a while. The whole thing looks exactly like any other day, and Cody can't help but think that the two girls are acting like nothing happened per Noah's request.

The sound of a lunch tray slamming down is what startles Cody into looking away from Noah. She's less pissed, but she's giving him an odd look. "What were you staring at?" she asks, stealing both milks from his tray. Cody lets out a huff of air, sending a quick glance at Noah before focusing on the girl in front of him.

"Nothing. Just staring into space." he says with a small shrug, tapping the table methodically. Cody glances over at Noah again and Gwen, infuriatingly perceptive Gwen, just snorts.

"Okay," she says, opening her milks the normal way this time, "then why did you just glance over at Courtney, Heather, and Noah."

Cody rolls his eyes, "Technically, I only glanced at Noah."

"So you admit you were looking at him."

"No, I admit I glanced at him. I haven't admitted that I had been looking at him yet."

"Technically, you just did."

Cody groans, running a hand through his chestnut brown hair as Gwen gives him a cocky smirk. "I always hated your technicalities."

Gwen shakes her head in amusement, taking a sip of her milk. Cody has always had a problem with keeping secrets. Not that he goes around telling everyone his friends business, he's just incredibly easy to read. You can tell when he's mad, sad, happy, uncomfortable, nervous and any other emotion you can think of. Chris always says that he's just expressive. His father says he's going to make a shit lawyer. (He doesn't know how to tell his father that he doesn't want to be a lawyer.)

Maybe the only way to tell his dad he doesn't want to be a lawyer is to not tell him at all. I mean, he's never home. Would it really be so hard to keep it from him until it's time to leave this time next year? Maybe. Again, terrible liar.

"Hey, you okay?" Gwen asks, she looks concerned. Cody's entire dilemma was displayed on his face like usual. Jesus, he really needs to get a better poker face.

"Just thinking about Mr. Anderson and his soon-to-be lawyer son." He says. He hopes he doesn't sound as disconcerted as he feels, but Gwen can always read between his crooked lines and fake grins. She gives him a pitying smile, one that Cody has grown accustomed to over the years, but doesn't press. If there's one thing that anyone knows about Cody, it's that he hates talking about his dad.

The bell rings, and Cody barely even touched his food. Gwen gives him a small glance, but ultimately says nothing. Once in Junior year they got into an argument about how little Cody was eating because she wouldn't take 'I'm just not hungry!' for an answer. They were at it for two hours before she blurted out that she wasn't going to let him starve himself, and it finally hit him that she assumed that he had an eating disorder. The next hour and a half was him explaining to her that his Adderall took away his appetite. She still worries, but he makes sure to send her pictures of the food he eats to ease her nerves.

Speaking of which, he can feel his meds slowly starting to wear off. He'll have to bring that up with his doctor during his next visit.

He walks into English class and takes his seat in the front row. Mr. Hatchet (an odd name if Cody's ever heard one) looks up at him, but says nothing. Mr. Hatchet is... intimidating, to say the least. He isn't scary, per se, but his stature and large build would make anyone feel intimidated. Well, anyone but Cody. Cody's honestly always been too focused on the literature to be intimidated by his teacher. Plus, Mr. Hatchet is actually super chill. Once you get past the whole 'looks like he could kill you' vibe, you get a really funny teacher. He kind of reminds Cody of Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society.

"Alright, I have a year long project for you all," the class groans, "yeah yeah, complain all you want. It's not that bad." He picks up a marker and quickly writes down the words 'WHO ARE YOU?' on the board. Pretty self explanatory, Cody thinks. "Over the next seven months I want you to write an essay on who you think you are. Changes that happen in your life, things that you discover about yourself, things you discover about the people around you and how it effects your life. Don't worry about censoring yourself, either. I know how much you kids like the swear, I'm not completely incompetent."

Cody sighs. He loves Mr. Hatchet's class, he really does, but he's never been a fan of introspective projects. They're a hassle, and Cody likes to think he knows who he is. He isn't very complicated, to be honest. He's Cody Emmett Jameson Anderson, soon-to-be reluctant lawyer that will marry a woman who doesn't love him and that he doesn't love and have two kids that he has barely any connection with. That's who he is and will always be. Nothing more, nothing less.

By the time he gets to drama class, he's kind of exhausted. He doesn't even spare the rest of the room a glance or give Gwen her usual greeting, he just falls into his chair, leans his head back, and closes his eyes.

"Is this seat taken?" a voice asks, causing Cody to open his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that the voice was very obviously deeper than Gwen could ever imitate, he would have assumed it was the goth making a joke, but instead he's met with the tan skin of one Noah Sterecra. In the moment, Cody isn't sure how or why the sight of the other boy shocked him so bad. He isn't sure why he froze, and why his breath was seemingly stolen from him. What he does know, however, is that the seat isn't taken, so he shakes his head and moves his backpack to make room for the taller boys legs.

Cody's leg bounces, his exhaustion having been ripped away from him and replaced instead by a bone deep shock, as he spares glances at Noah. There's nothing particularly striking about Noah. His hair is fairly normal, his skin is littered with acne scars, he has eye bags if you look hard enough, and his sense of fashion isn't exactly eye catching. Honestly, if Noah weren't in the student council, Cody's sure he'd just be another face in the crowd. All that aside, Cody can't stop looking at him.

Noah is bored, if his expression is anything to go by. He's uninterested in everything that's going on around him in the room, eyes half lidded with a slight frown on his face. His eyebrows are furrowed just a bit, and he sends a judging glare to everyone in the room. It's not eye-catching, but for some reason it's absolutely captivating. In a way that it really, really, shouldn't be allowed to be.

"Why are you here?" Cody blurts out, eyes widening as Noah turns to him with a raised brow, "Oh my god! That sounded literally so rude, I'm sorry. I just meant that like, you weren't in this class before and I'd never really expected anyone to ever join drama. Not because it's boring, but because people here don't really seem that interested in it, and it's kind of the target for a lot of unflattering jokes, and I just thought no one would ever want to subject themselves to that, and you can honestly just cut me off whenever you like, I won't take offense."

"College stuff." Noah finally says, face as neutral as it was when he sat down. Cody lets out a breath, letting himself relax at the indifferent tone. "I needed some more stuff on my applications, and I figured this would be perfect."

Cody nods, turning to look forward again as a silence falls over the two boys. The room is still bustling with sound, it's a drama class after all, but the quiet between them is thick and uncomfortable. "I think you'll like Chris. He's a little weird, but he's better than most of the teachers here."

"I'm only here for one production. That's all I really need for my application." Noah says, not even bothering to look at Cody when he answers. Cody purses lips, tapping his feet repeatedly on the ground. It's a little loud, and Cody can see it can be annoying. People tend to get aggravated by it, so he's expecting a 'shut up' from the other boy, but it never comes. His shoes get a quick glance, but nothing more, and the tapping over takes the silence. He dislikes it more than nothing being said.

He makes eye contact with Gwen as she stops at the end of the isle, looking between him and Noah a few times before smirking and walking over to where Izzy, Owen, Trent, and Justin are and sitting down next to them. Traitor.

The constant tapping seems to finally get on Noah's nerves because he sighs and finally turns to the paler boy, "What's up with the tapping?" he asks, and Cody stops doing it immediately.

"Sorry. I'll stop."

"I didn't ask you to stop," Noah says, furrowing his brows, "I asked you whats up with it."

Cody is, in the most simple of terms, taken aback by the question. No one's ever really asked before. They've just told him to stop because it was annoying, or to do something else that didn't make much noise, or, in his fathers own words, stop being a distraction to others. He's learned to hold himself still, as uncomfortable as it may be, for the sake of others. He's never had anyone just want to know the reasoning behind it.

"Oh, well," Cody blinks a few times, trying to regain his composure as Noah gives him an expectant look, "my ADHD medication tends to wear off at the end of the day, so I tend to get really fidgety and I have a hard time staying still and I end up talking a lot in one sitting until someone interrupts me."

Noah just nods, turning back to the front. This time he reaches into his bag, moving notebooks and loose papers around in his search for something before het finally pulls out an ono roller, and holding it out to Cody. His expression is blank once more, but Cody's probably looks ridiculous. He knows his mouth his hanging open, eyes blown wider than should be humanly possible, but he can't reel himself in. He'd heard about these tools, they helped people with ADHD so that they had something to fidget with, but he'd never gotten one because his father said he couldn't 'get used to having help'.

"No, I can't. That's yours, dude." Cody says, finally closing his mouth. Noah just rolls his eyes.

"Technically, it's my cousins. He gave it to me because he didn't want it anymore, and I don't need it, so you can take it."

Cody shakes his head, but Noah drops it in his lap before he can respond and Cody just leaves it there for a few seconds before finally picking it up. It's warm, likely from being in Noah's bag for so long, and the color looks a bit faded in some places, but it moves just a fluidly as he expected it to from all the videos. A small smile forms on his face as he rolls the device in his hand. It's a comforting kind of repetition, and it makes him feel like he's being less annoying.

He might have just been imagining it, but he swears he saw Noah smile a bit when Cody took out a marker, and drew a star on it.

"Alright campers!" Chris' voice tears through the calm atmosphere, ripping Cody's attention from the thing in his hands. "Let's take attendance!" Chris goes through the list, calling out Noah's name additionally, before getting into today's topic.

"Okay! The school board decided that we'll be putting The Little Mermaid for this semester, with a small twist. The school wants to be more inclusive, so they've decided to make Ariel a male lead." a hushed whisper breaks out in the first two rows, a couple girls groaning that they can't be Ariel and most of the guys wondering who in their right mind would try out for the lead in this case.

Cody... is indifferent. As are Gwen, Izzy, Trent, Justin, and Owen. He doesn't really care, he's always been more of a tech crew and ensemble guy, but he can see why it would be a big deal to some people. He's probably just going to be ensemble again, to be quite honest. Chris explains the idea to the class, and by the time he's done everyone is discussing it, except for Noah who just stares at the stage lights.

"Are you thinking of trying out?" Cody asks in an attempt to make conversation.

Noah sighs, "I don't think I have a choice."

Cody doesn't ask what he means, but he does spare him a few more glances than are necessary for the rest of class. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed ! I look forward to posting this fic from now on :)
> 
> (p.s. sorry for ignoring my other projects. I'm working on the behind the scenes, promise!)
> 
> **  
> _DISCLAIMER!!!_  
> **
> 
> Cody's experience with ADHD is based solely on my own personal experience. It's different for everyone, and I know that some people might not be able to relate to it, but I thought I would put it out there that I DO know what I'm talking about :) <3


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